Project description

Introduction

traIXroute is a tool that detects if and where a traceroute path crosses an IXP fabric. It uses multiple criteria to verify IXP crossings in the light of replies from third-party interfaces or inaccuracies in the available data about IP addresses assigned to IXPs. These discrepancies mislead simple heuristics based solely on the IP address prefixes allocated to IXPs. The detection uses data from PeeringDB, Packet Clearing House and RouteViews. In addition, traIXroute uses in the background the standard traceroute tool or the scamper tool, which implements the Paris traceroute technique to deal with inaccurate paths due to load balancers [1]. It is open source under GPLv3.

The heuristics used by traIXroute and their evaluation are described in the following paper:

traIXroute enhances for the first time its features interoperating with the Remote Peering Jedi tool. For now, only data for DE-CIX (Frankfurt), Any2 (Los Angeles), AMS-IX, France-IX, LINX and MSK-IX are included.

Installation

The program has been tested on Linux and Mac OS X. Detailed installation instructions can be found in the INSTALL file in the repository. You can install all the necessary packages running:

IMPORTANT

In case you run Mac OS X, ensure you have installed the Xcode command line developer tools before. To install run:

$ xcode-select --install

A software update popup window will appear. You need to install only the command line developer tools by clicking the “Install” button and then agree to the Terms of Service. This process will download and install the Command Line Tools package.

If you have problems, please contact George Nomikos (gnomikos [at] ics.forth.gr).

Documentation

Documentation can be found here. The documentation covers the available command line options, how to extend or overwrite the data from PeeringDB and the Packet Clearing House with user-provided data, how to customize or extend traIXroute detection rules, and a diagram of its modules.

Licence

The source code of traIXroute is released under the GNU General Public License, version 3. A copy can be found in the LICENSE file.